Tang Xianzu (; September 24, 1550 – July 29, 1616),

courtesy name A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theo ...

Yireng (), was a Chinese

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

of the

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

Biography

Tang was a native of Linchuan, Jiangxi and his career as an official consisted principally of low-level positions. He successfully participated in the provincial examinations ('' juren'') at the age of 21 and at the

imperial examinations The imperial examination (; lit. "subject recommendation") refers to a civil-service examination system in Imperial China, administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureaucrats by ...

(''

jinshi ''Jinshi'' () was the highest and final degree in the imperial examination in Imperial China. The examination was usually taken in the imperial capital in the palace, and was also called the Metropolitan Exam. Recipients are sometimes refer ...

'') at the age of 34. He held official positions in

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and t ...

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Ji ...

province,

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020 ...

province etc. After serving as the magistrate of Suichang,

from 1593 to 1598, he retired in 1598 and returned to his hometown where he focused on writing. Tang died in 1616, the same year as famed English playwright

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

. His major plays are collectively called the ''Four Dreams'', because of the decisive role dreams play in the plot of each one. All of them are still performed (in scenes, or in adapted full versions) on the Chinese Kun opera (

kunqu Kunqu (), also known as Kunju (), K'un-ch'ü, Kun opera or Kunqu Opera, is one of the oldest extant forms of Chinese opera. Kunqu is one of the oldest traditional operas of the Han nationality, and is also a treasure of Chinese traditional cult ...

) stage. Generally considered his masterpiece, the '' Mudan Ting'' (''The Peony Pavilion'') has been translated into English several times. A translation of his complete dramatic works in English was published in China in 2014 and in London in 2018.

Legacy

A few Ming and Qing playwrights followed Tang's writing style and called themselves the Yumintang or Linchuan school. Tang Xianzu has been known for their methodology when writing, maintaining a message disregarding logical semantics. He has been compared to both Shakespeare and Philip Sidney, who both maintained this same method.

Works

*''

The Purple Flute ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'' () *''

The Purple Hairpin ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'' () :See The Purple Hairpin (1957) 紫釵記 (粵劇) by

Tang Ti-sheng Tang Ti-sheng () (18 June 1917 – 15 September 1959), born Tang Kang-nien (), was a Cantonese opera playwright, scriptwriter, and film director. His contributions to Cantonese opera significantly influenced Hong Kong's reform and development of ...

*''

The Peony Pavilion ''The Peony Pavilion'' ( zh, t=牡丹亭, s=牡丹亭, p=Mǔdān tíng, w=Mu-tan t'ing), also named ''The Return of Soul at the Peony Pavilion'', is a romantic tragicomedy play written by dramatist Tang Xianzu in 1598. The plot was drawn from the ...

'' () *''

Record of Handan A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, r ...

'' () *''

Record of Southern Bough A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, r ...

'' ()

Works available in English

* The Peony Pavilion (trans. Cyril Birch). Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980. * The Peony Pavilion (trans. Wang Rongpei). Changsha: Hunan People's Press, 2000. * A Dream Under the Southern Bough (trans. Zhang Guangqian). Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 2003. . * The Handan Dream (trans. Wang Rongpei). Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 2003 * The Complete Dramatic Works of Tang Xianzu (trans. Wang Rongpei & Zhang Ling) Bloomsbury: London, 2018.

Studies available in English

*Peony Pavilion Onstage : Four Centuries in the Career of a Chinese Drama (Catherine Swatek). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Center for Chinese, 2003. *Tan, Tian Yuan and Paolo Santangelo. ''Passion, Romance, and Qing: The World of Emotions and States of Mind in Peony Pavilion''. 3 Volumes. Leiden: Brill, 2014.

References

* Xu, Shuofang
"Tang Xianzu"
''

Encyclopedia of China The ''Encyclopedia of China'' () is the first large-entry modern encyclopedia in the Chinese language. The compilation began in 1978. Published by the Encyclopedia of China Publishing House, the encyclopedia was issued one volume at a time, begin ...

'' (Music and Dance Edition), 1st ed.

External links

* *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tang Xianzu 1550 births 1616 deaths People from Fuzhou, Jiangxi Writers from Jiangxi Ming dynasty politicians 16th-century Chinese dramatists and playwrights 17th-century Chinese dramatists and playwrights

Biography

Legacy

Works

Works available in English

Studies available in English

References

Further reading

External links